Why Photography

Doctors say that we remember things as still images in our brain. Perhaps that is the power that photography wields over us. When we see a photograph for the first time, it is a memory that we have never had, or even more powerful, it is someone else’s memory that they have shared with us. Even if it is manipulated, color corrected, black and white, and tonally balanced or darkened or lightened… it is still a memory we have never had, and it is somewhat of a connective, and spiritual experience. 


Now, after doing photography as an art form for the past 10 years or so, I have come full circle. It has been an amazing transformation with in my self and an amazing transformation in my artistic style and vision. It was a slow rebirth into this world of photography, but I am so very glad, and grateful that this path has laid itself open to me, and I am pleased that I have accepted it and embraced it. If anyone of you was to know my stubborn character when it comes to my art and my artistic ways, you might even say it was a miracle.


In my work, what I would do mainly, is take shots of a girl or subject, and use the shots exclusively to make fantasy fantastical artistic creation, such as Angles, or Mermaids , Fairies and Trolls, or some other type of surreal, and unreal photographical art. The same for a tree or a landscape or anything that I shot. The intent was only just to bring back the image, and use it as elements of a larger creation, or to manipulate the photo so drastically that it had only the slightest resemblance to the actual shot. I thought I was creating ART. I was creating art, and that is a good thing, and the art was good and entertaining and provocative and people loved it, hated it, and thought about it. However, something else was underneath all of that, and it slowly began to surface. 


As time passed, I began to see the photograph itself for the artistic beauty that it actually was. I began to see light and shadow in different ways. I began to look at the smallest details and think… “That would make a great photo”. I began to see things as if they where black and white. I could look at a color photo and in my mind see the tonal ranges as if it was black and white. I claimed it was the years I spent doing pen and ink drawing that was the cause of this. I claimed it was my years of drawing and painting in traditional art forms that was only being enhanced by photography. I was wrong.
the photos was the art, and photography was the medium.


This was a bit of knowledge a lot of people already new, and I had a feeling it was true. It just took me 30 years to figure it out. Most of us have heard the old saying that every cell in the body is changed over a period of seven years. I guess it has taken me a bit longer to cycle through. It has been more than worth it.


So... why Photography. Because it is my art form.




Shane